


Magic 2.3: Todd, Merlin's Apprentice

by GlassesAndGiggles



Category: Magic 2.0 Series - Scott Meyer
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Drunk!Phillip, M/M, Men Crying, Movie Theater Sex, clothed, handjob
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 13:56:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12608140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlassesAndGiggles/pseuds/GlassesAndGiggles
Summary: Alternate Timeline  where Todd hit Phillip in the dick instead of Jimmy. Jimmy blames Gary for the prank, and decides to apprentice Todd himself for an additional month to see if he's salvageable. Jimmy really sees Todd's potential but feels like he may be in over his head.  Todd likes Jimmy,  but to a dangerous degree.  Set in an alternate universe where everyone is bi.





	1. A Cake for End-y Occasion

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote Todd as chubby for some reason? He's actually very small and tries to be stylish in the books. Maybe it was the voice the narrator used for him that made me think he was bigger? By the time I reread it I'd already had slob!Todd in my mind, and I just liked him better than Hottie!Toddy, so... Deal with it, I guess.

A CAKE FOR ENDY OCCASION 

Jimmy spent the next few days with Todd. Todd didn't like this very much, as Todd has been able to bully Gary into leaving him alone but Jimmy, who was just as much of a bully as Todd was, wouldn't take no for an answer. He hovered incessantly whenever Todd tried to work on something and whenever Todd even began to think about breaking one of their rules, Jimmy would be there pecking at him all the while with that infuriating smile.

 

It wasn't very pleasant for Jimmy either. While Eddie's apprenticeship had been a breeze on account of Eddie's easily exploitable man-crush on Jimmy, Todd had no such weakness. Todd extended wizarding education was an exercise in patience and courage for Jimmy. Todd never laughed at his jokes...even Phillip laughed at Jimmy's jokes sometimes, though he did always look pissed off afterwards, as if Jimmy had tricked him. Todd never laughed, or laughed too late, or laughed at the wrong part. This made Jimmy's usual rapid fire approach of talking, pausing, responding, and reciprocating that he'd mastered through years of Toastmasters meetings ( which he still attended every Wednesday ) useless because Todd would either give monosyllabic answers or answers so out of left field that Jimmy would stagger over his response. In addition, Todd just gave him the creeps. Jimmy was considering this when Todd broke his inner thoughts. 

 

"Enough training." Todd dropped the cake he had been constructing as a demonstration of precise coordinate coding ability coinciding with staff movements. Because the macro had already started, it kept going without his participation behind him as he gave up all pretenses of role play and turned to Jimmy scratching one ear. 

 

"Enough?" Jimmy looked over Todd's shoulder. The cake twirled in the air, assembling itself perfectly. A few of the servants who had been scuttling about the hall looked in confusion at the spell, then they caught JImmy catching them looking, and continued their scuttling elsewhere. "But you're doing great! No reason to stop."

 

"No, I mean, after this. I want to take a day off."

 

"Technically, I'm not supposed to, but maybe a little R&R couldn't hurt. It'd be better than throwing off my whole training schedule. I am a very busy man-"

"When's the furthest date you can go up?"

"Excuse me?" Again, out of left field. This was about Todd. 2005 Todd.

"The date you lived, the furthest one in the future?" Todd drew his eyebrows up and pronounced the sentence with the exaggerated lip movements used with the very slow by the very annoyed. Jimmy didn't miss this, but wrote it off as part of Todd's overall teenaged arrested developement. When he replied, it was minimal and sunny in tone.

"1986." 

"I want to see a movie. I wanted to go to a movie theater, but not anymore." 

"Okay?"

"Since you're so goddamn old I'll have bring a DVD back. And a DVD Player. And maybe a TV, it might be easier than hunting for the right wires." Todd sighed. "Where do you watch movies in the castle?"

"I have a home cinema, in the dungeon. But I'm sure we can set something up in your-"

"Your cinema should be fine. What snacks should I bring?"

"Whatever you want? It's your movie, pal. I'm just here to give you the time to watch it. Though, I bet most of it's already coded, I'll shortcut the junk food of choice to your hat if you don't already know the codes-"

"Everyone always says anything is okay and then they get all weird when you don't have the right cola. Just tell me what you want to snack on. I don't like the way hat food tastes. It's got a... sort of... ozoney thing going on. Like a Best Buy-"

Jimmy missed the last part of that, his mind still stumbling through Todd's statements.

Did Todd mean.. I want to watch a movie, with you?

"And shopping for junk food is half of the fun of having it. You get to see that huge display with all of the candy, and the brightly colored wrappers, and hear the slushee machine churning, and smell the french fries-"

"Are you perhaps hungry?" Jimmy interrupted. Todd blinked at him.

"Yes, I guess. Can we go to McDonald's?"

"We have all of McDonald's Menu coded, even the new stuff. Jeff put it in."

"I know, but I don't like hat food." 

Jimmy whipped off his hand, and summon a McRib value meal from it. Todd sniffed in spite of himself, his broad stomach giving a growl beneath the plain robes as Jimmy handed him the bag. He reached in again and yanked out a Coca Cola.

"Until we finished your extended education and rehabilitation, I've got to limit your trips to the future. So, until you earn enough brownie points, hat food it is, Todd."

"The packaging is so old." Todd remarked, looking at it. "Makes me feel like I'm five again."

 

He didn't mean anything by it, Jimmy reminded himself.

"Well, Todd, although I'd love to join you for movie night, I'm just totally swamped with projects and even taking out the time to train you has been crunching up my schedule like crazy, so I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

 

Todd sat down on the floor, cross legged, and opened the bag. He pulled out the sandwich, popped open the cardboard box, watched with disinterest a glob of barbecue sauce dripped off the corner and onto his robe, then took a bite out of the sandwich and chewed. JImmy waited. And waited. and waited for his reply.

Finally, Todd swallowed.

"You're a time traveler."

"Yes, but perceived time-"

"You do this to Eddie all the time." 

Out of left field, Jimmy who had already been turning to leave, paused and looked over his shoulder.

"Excuse me?"

"You do this to Eddie all the time. You tell him he has to take care of things for you because you don't have the time, but that's not it. You have infinite time. All the Wizards do. When they delegate it's not because they can't do something, it's because they don't want to. It's not worth THEIR time, even though their time is infinitely free and renewable." Todd took a deep slurp from his soda. "You could see a movie with me, but you don't want to."

This was an absolutely fact. Of course, Jimmy had to deny it absolutely.

"No, nononono! That's not it."

"That is it. Just like you give Eddie all the dumb chores you think you're too important to do." Todd punctuated this by shoving a handful of french fries into his mouth. "You've made him your Asian manservant, like in an old movie." Todd, still chewing, regarded Jimmy with a suspicious eyebrow. "I appreciate that you're keeping me around, but don't think I'm going to deal with being treated like that. I had enough of that pecking order crap in school. If you don't like me, just say so."

Jimmy could not admit he didn't like Todd. It was two pronged problem. First, he had openly declared an affinity for Todd's cleverness in front of everyone in his argument with Phillip, the loudest they'd had since Jimmy renamed the Thames. Secondly, Todd scared him.

"I think you're okay." Todd turned back to his meal, sullenly sipping the carbonated beverage. Jimmy watched the cake, which only had a few more marzipan skulls to add before it was complete. Jimmy had thought it was dark chocolate strawberry themed, but now could see the sticky, dark red ribbons dripping down each obsidian frosted tier were supposed to be blood. It was the kind of Halloween party pastry that would delight deranged adults and terrify children..

Oh god.   
He'd have to see the movie with him. JImmy showed no outward signs of the mingled rage, anxiety, and frustration he was feeling. He'd gotten used to burying those feelings deep down, locked in a little box, often prodded but rarely ripped open by Phillip. He could handle this. Jimmy instead crouched down on the floor next to Todd. He draped an arm over the broad shoulders, patting the far one. Todd looked at it, and then turned to look at Jimmy, startled by how close they were from the way his eyes widened.

"Todd, you remind me of myself. You're ambitious. You know what you want. You've got vision. You're clever too." Maybe didn't have any common sense. Charisma had definitely been treated as a dump stat on Todd's character sheet, and his WIS was nothing to write home about, but his INT was impressive. Todd's round jaw circled slowly as he chewed. "And I like you. A lot. I wouldn't invite people I don't like to live in my house, right?"

"I thought it was the King's castle?" Todd asked with a sardonic edge. 

Damn. Observant too.

"Yes, well, it's more our mutual effort, the King and I."

"So, movie tomorrow?"

"I do need a night off. Let's see a movie. But... you'll have to write up what you want and I'll have one of the future facing Wizards get it. Like I said, I shouldn't adjust your chronocoordinates right now. The others are looking for any excuse to get rid of you."

"S'fine." Todd rummaged around in the McDonald's bag and pulled out a receipt. He flipped it over, and with a pen he just kept jammed in his pocket apparently, wrote on the receipt. Jimmy watched. Todd wrote:

Movie: Saw

Jimmy expected more, such as, what movie had Todd seen. However, that was all he wrote for a second, before stopping, and writing next to it. :

(2004). Then, another pause, and in a post script adding:

And any sequels,

"Did you decide what you want to eat?"  
"Hmm, I've always been partial to popcorn, kind of traditional that way. But I don't mind hat food, it's fine." Jimmy provided.  
\  
Todd wrote down:  
Oil Popped Popcorn, Hard Lemonade, Blue Raspberry Icee, Twinkies, Chocolate Covered Peanuts, Ruffled Potato Chips, Chip Dip ( Ranch ), Sour Patch Watermelons

He paused.

He added: Reeses Pieces

"You guys from the 80s like Reeses right? And, oh."

He added Pepsi as well.

"Wow, you've got quite an appetite." Jimmy remarked.

"It's an exciting movie, you'll burn a lot of calories watching it." Todd folded the receipt and then passed it to Jimmy, before standing up. He looked at his cake. He tilted his head, a whisper of satisfaction crossing his usually gloomy expression. "Hey, that came out cool."  
"Sure did." Jimmy pocketed the note in the belt of his tunic, then patted Todd on the shoulder. "Want to try it?" Jimmy took a step forward and swiped his finger through the frosting. Todd hit him. Jimmy staggered back, surprised, and fell into the cake.

"Don't lick it!" Todd ordered.

"You prefer I swim in it?" Jimmy scrambled, but found no purchase as the inches of cake just came off between his long fingers, his torso's weight support preposterously by the cake he was slowly sinking into. 

"It's a death cake." Todd explained, noticing Merlin's staff had fallen to the floor in the attack. He hunched over and picked it up from the floor, twirling it in his hand.

"I don't remember asking you to make a death cake." Jimmy's deadpanned.

"You asked me to make a multi-tiered cake with ornate frosting patterns and fondant decorations. I did. You never said an occasion, so I made it for a cult party. Like, if Jonestown had cake instead of kool-aid when they all killed themselves. It's not supposed to be used, it's more like a concept car that way."

"A concept car? Your poison cake is like a concept car?" Jimmy's voice raised with incredulity. Todd shrugged, any plans he had for escape or revenge evaporating as he set Jimmy's staff back down. Todd grabbed Jimmy's hand. Todd's grasp was moist naturally and currently slicked with French fry grease. It was like grabbing a wedge of ham, but the arm behind it was strong. He yanked Jimmy out of the cake with ease. Too much ease, as Jimmy tripped into Todd. 

Frosting mingled with Jimmy's usual scent, not unpleasantly, Todd thought. He was in no hurry and stood relatively still in the seconds they were entangled before Jimmy found his footing. The black and gray frosting clung the fluttering sleeves of Jimmy's outfit. He glared at the globs with contempt. 

"The batter is loaded with cyanide. You didn't eat any did you?"

Jimmy shook his head, still flicking his arms and sending sprays of toxic cake everywhere.

"You want to wash off as soon as possible before it gets into your skin." Todd frowned. "Hey, unrelated question. I know blunt force can't permanently damage Wizards with shell protection, but what about like hot sauce or corrosive acids or-"

"I'm sure it's fine." Jimmy wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to show fear in front of his latest apprentice. Also, his arms were beginning to itch. "I'll be back, I'll give your note to ..someone." And then he popped out of existence. Then popped back, eliminated Todd's cake before anyone in the castle could accidentally eat it, and without any conversation, disappeared again.


	2. Old Flame Request

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy asks Phillip for a favor.

OLD FLAME REQUEST

Teleporting to Lead Church meant appearing inside of Phillip's house, at least if Jimmy wanted to have any hope to talking to Phillip. Calling ahead of time on the hand phones was a no-go, Phillip never answered and if he did it was usually only long enough to make a disparaging jab before promptly hanging up. Jimmy had tried appearing at the Pub, appearing at the Church, appearing in Gwen's shop, and appearing in the street in the hope of bumping into Phillip on his daily business. Even if Jimmy caught him, though, Phillip would just go back home and close the door in Jimmy's long nosed face. Phillip would steadfastly refuse to open the door or talk to him unless the old curmudgeon was feeling extremely generous, which wasn't a mood he had towards Jimmy very often. 

So, Jimmy had just started appearing in Phillip's house one day when he wanted something. He was intimately familiar with the place from his time apprenticing with Phillip. Phillip told everyone that had been two weeks, which was true, but only on a calendar. In perceived time taking into account time travel loops, they had been inseparable for nearly three months. 

It was one of the three secrets of the original trio in the Magic 2.3 Universe. They all kept secrets from all new wizards, facts that only they knew. They'd all been allowed a single secret.

Gwen's secret was that she was a wizard at all, she got a thrill from lying and hiding in plain sight. She didn't have the political motivations to try and change the status quo to accept a woman of power.

Phillip's secret was that he had accidentally killed someone with the file while trying to grant their wish, which started his philosophy of non-interference. Jimmy had helped him clean up the mess, since he'd been his apprentice at the time.

Jimmy's ( and to an extent Phillip got a freebie secret here since he didn't want it revealed either ) was that he and Phillip had been lovers for much of their training. It hadn't been a single sloppy experimental encounter, but weeks of obsession and codependency. The word love had been used with reckless abandon and 'soul mate' still made Jimmy cringe remembering the fervent enthusiasm he had uttered it with. JImmy had truthfully never been in love with anyone, much less Phillip, but he'd been more than willing to go through the performance in order to secure Phillip's favorable treatment. 

When Jimmy first arrived in England he didn't have a year to prepare like Phillip had but instead he had been chased out of the future after only a few days of file access. Jimmy hadn't even properly coded his computer to give it power.. Jimmy had brought back a useless hunk of plastic and glass, and probably would have perished had Phillip not taken pity on him. When Phillip demonstrated the true power of the file using 'magic macros', JImmy had fallen in love... with the power, if not the person. Power Phillip was reluctant to grant to a stranger. 

Enamored with Phillip's power, Jimmy had encouraged Phillip's bisexual curiosity in him to ensure the continued access to training and development of the shell. It worked.. to an extent. Many of the original macros had been presets crafted by Phillip to make Jimmy happy, gifts to a sweetheart in the form of spell crafts. The only problem was that Jimmy's passion for power combined with his natural cleverness closed the gap between them everyday, and in a few months Jimmy's coding reached a point where Jimmy didn't feel the price of being sexually submissive to another man ( Phillip never let him be on top ) was worth the benefit he was getting from Phillip's assistance. 

Jimmy had liked the sex part, but his pride couldn't handle being a pupil anymore.

So, he'd started branching out. As soon as Jimmy had stopped pretending, the relationship crumbled and turned toxic. While Jimmy's heart had the impenetrable layer of adamantine that being born a psychopath granted, Phillip's was perfectly healthy and vulnerable.

Jimmy skewered that heart, sliced it up, stomped on it and spit on it. The break-up had been the famous sort of nasty that would still make it late night poker conversation all these years later had it not been a total secret.

 

A bad move, Jimmy admitted in retrospect. He knew Camelot could be a lot further along if he'd been able to get Phillip's help... but at that moment, Jimmy had felt so liberated and giddy at finally being honest and throwing off the yoke of Phillip's mentorship that had hadn't been considering long term consequences.

In typical post break up nerd boy fashion, Phillip alternated being ignoring his ex, pining for his ex, and being a total asshole to his ex ever since.

Knowing Phillip's habits intimately from this time in his life, Jimmy successfully guessed Phillip was most often in his bedroom, which was true. Phillip loved to lounge on his bed reading most days. Appearing there and startling Phillip awake from a nap was hilarious and his preferred method of arrival for a while, until Jimmy awkwardly appeared when Phillip had changed out his mid-afternoon nap for a wank. It hadn't been seeing Phillip's rod that had been the awkward part, it had been that Phillip had only smirked at him and continued as if not interrupted.

Jimmy had gone completely crimson and retreated. A loss.

The bathroom was avoided for obvious reasons.

The second floor has been completely sealed off from him through the same sort of invisible force field magic Jimmy utilized all over Camelot. Though, who would even want to see Phillip's second story? The main part of the house was boring enough. 

The kitchen was good for a while, except when Phillip rearranged. It was put on the off-limits list after Jimmy had once teleported into a wooden chair, which while not long-term harmful, was excruciating. 

That left the front counter of Phillip's shop. The front counter was the perfect place to invade Phillip's house. He couldn't put an exclusion field on it because he was always taking wizard and civilian visitors there. He kept the area clean for the same reason.

So, Jimmy teleported into Phillip's shop. He'd chosen a low-key salutation this time, just a soft crescendo of drums to build anticipation for the audio, with a fountain of sparks pouring up from a spot off of the floor, the sparks bouncing further and further out as the arc of light grew as the visual. The colors shifted gradually, from white to a pale pink to a baby blue to a green and gold that now sprayed a meter tall, the sparks harmlessly bouncing off of the ceiling. 

As the drum rolling became huge percussive bursts, Jimmy stepped through the sparks to the space in front of the counter, his arms gesturing wildly in an open sign of greeting.

"Quake not, mortals, for the arrival of Merlin is a sign of benevolence and bount-"

"Shut up, I've got a headache."

Phillip, despite being given plenty of warning, had not hurried down the stairs. He was just reaching the bottom as Jimmy trailed off. Jimmy dropped his hands to the side, smiling at his old mentor. 

"You should have got here earlier, you would have liked it. It was nice and understated, your style." Jimmy leaned one elbow on the counter as the fireworks dissipated into nothing behind him and the drums and trumpets slipped into silence like doing a cross fade on a cassette tape party mix. 

"An entire high school marching band is understated?" Phillip looked a bit uneasy on the stairs. Phillip had a whisky glass in one hand, the huge ball of ice inside rolling around idly as Phillip twitched his fingers.

"It's not even five yet."

"I finished work early today." Phillip took a drink, but seemed a little more alert after he lowered the glass. "You're not in your Merlin regalia."

Jimmy was not. His hair was still damp from the bath. He had his hat in one hand, necessary for casting magic, his staff tucked under the other arm, and a simple black bathrobe to meet the sleeve droopiness requirement. This really was just a quick errand. Under the necessities for spellcasting, he had thrown on a faded black and yellow Back to the Future T-shirt ( he'd always had some satisfaction in knowing he'd seen the cinematic masterpiece and Phillip still hadn't advanced time enough to catch a screening ) and a pair of canary yellow corduroy pants with black sneakers to pull the slacker ensemble together. 

He'd prefer to have come in a suit if he wasn't going full wizard, but whenever he did this Phillip refused to cooperate at all, instead addressing Jimmy like he was applying for a job. No matter what Jimmy would say, Phillip would twist it to "And why do you think you're qualified for this position?" "Interesting, where do you see yourself in ten years?" and of course "What do you feel is your greatest weakness?" It was worse than just being given the silent treatment. 

With the T-shirt, Phillip might just talk to him.

"It's at the cleaners."

"You ruined it? Gwen won't like that."

"Ah, it was more of a ...." Jimmy just stopped himself from blaming Todd. There was no need to indicate anything was less than perfect in Camelot, so instead he continued with. "Anyway, speaking of our lovely friend Gwen, I need you to ask her for a small favor."

Jimmy pulled the note from his pocket and handed it to Phillip. Phillip took it one unsteady hand, he was definitely drunk, and unfolded the receipt.

"McRib?" He asked.

"No, the other side, you got it all turned around."

Phillip read off the note.

"A movie from 2004? Saw? A DVD? What's a DVD?"

 

"Future stuff, it's a film format? Todd wants to do a movie night tomorrow, but he's not allowed to travel and it's about twenty years past my time Visa expiration date, so if Jeff or Gwen could help us out that would be really fantastic."

"Why should they? They don't want Todd to be comfortable, they don't even want him here. I don't want him here. The fact that he's still here after what he did to Kludge and me is a travesty of justice."

"Aaaah, I'm not getting into this argument, we had it already and you lost. What Todd did was wrong, but condemning him without giving him a second chance when his only guidance was the village idiot is even worse. Kludge probably started it, anyway, and I know you definitely did." Jimmy chuckled. "But don't worry, I've been working on that stuff with him. Just because Gary failed his job as mentor doesn't mean Todd's a lost cause. I feel like i'm really getting through to him."

"The only thing that worries me more then Todd on his own is Todd with a psycho like you to guide him." 

Jimmy frowned.

"I don't have a violent bone in my body. I'm a patron of the arts, not of the art of war." Jimmy clarified, as if this would help. "I really think the guy just needs a friend. He seems lonely."

"What does Eddie think?"

Jimmy hesitated before he answered. Eddie didn't like Todd. At all. 

"He thinks it's going well too, though of course he's a bit jealous." Jimmy tilted his head to the side, smirking. "Please, Phillip, I'm calling in a favor. I'll owe Jeff or Gwen."

Phillip mulled it over.

"Fine, I'll ask, but why not ask them directly?"

Jimmy, although he wouldn't admit this, was feeling uncertain. That's why he'd gone to Phillip. Phillip, in some weird way, still was a symbol of authority in this zany upside down world where physics were suggestions and material wealth and immortality were just a few clacks of the keyboard away. 

"They actually leave their lairs sometimes and didn't answer their handphones." Jimmy lied. Phillip accepted this without question, as he knew Gwen hated Jimmy nearly as much as he did and Jeff admitted over prior game nights that he found interacting with Jimmy exhausting.

"Okay. I'm not going though."

"You weren't invited. This is a Mentor Apprentice thing." Jimmy explained. Phillip grimaced. Jimmy was confused by this reaction, until he realized with dawning horror that although the phrase 'mentor apprentice thing' was perfectly innocuous with any other wizard, it held a special double meaning in the current company. Jimmy held up his hands. "Wait, no, it's not like that."

"He's fat. And Mean."

"It's not like that. He just wants to hang out and relax."

This satisfied Phillip, who sipped at his whisky, eyeing Jimmy once up and down. He drifted from the stairs, and then tucked a lock of hair behind Jimmy's ear. Jimmy didn't flinch.

"Would you, if he was?" Phillip breathed.

Drunk and horny, Jimmy amended his assessment of Phillip's current mental state.

"Of course not." Jimmy drew his eyebrows together. "Phillip, I'm straight, the stuff with you was just... you know, youthful indiscretion. College dorm stuff, just a little late."

Phillip looked unconvinced.

Then he grabbed Jimmy about the waist, pulled him tight, and hugged him. Jimmy stood stunned in his arms, head swimming in the stringent smell of alcohol that flooded the air each time Phillip exhaled.

"Be careful."

"Christ, Phillip, he's my apprentice. He doesn't do squat unless I give him the go-ahead. He can't hurt me."

Phillip buried his lips against the crook of Jimmy's neck, making Jimmy's knees a bit weak inside of his canary corduroys in anticipation. Jimmy scolded his knees and made an effort to stand totally straight.

"This isn't Historical Preservation Society vs. Jimmyland Theme Park Camelot Coalition stuff. I'm saying this as me. He's bad news."

Each syllable was a warm puff against Jimmy's neck, he forced himself not to react.

Phillip didn't even know about Todd's Jonestown cake. 

"You never could seem to understand that I'm not a child. I don't need you to tell me what to do and I definitely don't need you to worry about me. Hell, Todd's just a kid. A teenager, really, barely out of High School. I can handle him."

"Teenagers have always scared me, even when I was one." Phillip sighed. He let go, stepping back and eyeing his disappointing former apprentice. "Okay, I'll get your movie. Gwen'll get it. Whatever." Then Phillip slouched up the stairs unsteadily. Jimmy watched him go, a hand touching his neck where Phillip had kissed him.

Stupid, really. What was there to be worried about? Jimmy was the most powerful man in all of history at this point. Todd was just some brat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phillip's always such an asshole in my fanfics. I actually really like him, he's probably my fifth favorite character. ( 1. Jimmy, obvs, 2. Todd 3. Miller and Murphy, 5. Phillip 6. Martin 7. Roy, in case anyone was wondering. ) I just tend to write assholes when left to my own devices. even in my original novels.


	3. Saw is Seen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd and Jimmy have a private screening of the film 'Saw'. Todd enjoys it much more than Jimmy, despite being distracted during the film by frantically fondling his mentor.

The theater in the dungeons of Camelot castle had four rows of seating, intended to host all of the Wizards at once. Jimmy had never been able to gather more than four at a time, though. ( Phillip's assertion that most of the wizards hated Jimmy, at least a little bit, was true. ) Normally, it was just him and Eddie screening stuff. Sometimes Eddie would bring his current girlfriend, but somehow that just made Jimmy feel the emptiness of the space every more acutely.

 

Jimmy was trying to get a movement passed to allow an exception in the 'don't expose the natives to obviously future tech' whenever the European wizards had a meeting for his theater, so he could have the damn theater filled to capacity at least once even if he had to order asses into the seats, but so far he was over ruled every single time.

 

The chairs were luxurious. He'd commissioned leather sofas from the local artisans, intersped with plush recliners for which he'd had to smuggle the mechanisms back. So, the front row was three love seats, the second row was six recliners, the third row three more love seats, and the back with six more recliners. All had a warming seat and back feature, which Jimmy had justified with 'dragon leather enchantments', and suspicious grooves carved into the arms that would perfectly nestle a standard 16 or 22 oz soft drink paper cup. 

 

The rest of it resembled a theater as much as possible with a slightly archaic flair. Todd was up in the projection both, tinkering with the DVD player. He popped his head out of the window and shouted down.

 

"Got it to play nice with your equipment, Jeff showed me some tricks he's learned to work with Phillip's stuff. It's all queued up for when you're ready- hey, where's your Merlin getup?" 

 

Jimmy had changed out of his Back to the Future shirt, worried the film might be too earnest for Todd's tastes. He'd had agonized over what would make the best impression on his edgy ward. He'd decided a band shirt for Rush's album 2112 was a good, neutral choice with the slightly pentagramish red star and general ambiguous nature. If Todd got it, he'd like it, and if he didn't, he wouldn't think it was lame because he'd have no idea what it was. Jimmy of course had to change his pants and shoes to match, now going for tight red pants and clunky black boots to create a striking silhouette. 

"I guess tonight I'm just feeling more like Jimmy than Merlin."

"Okay." Todd disappeared back into the projection booth and Jimmy heard him navigating his way through the back area to get back to the main theater. Jimmy walked among the seats until he found where Todd had arranged the snacks. They were in the first row, center.

Todd came out.

"Oh, oh, hurry, it's starting." Todd rushed down the aisle, finding the love seat and sitting down.

"So, you want us to sit on different sofas, or...?"

"What, no. I want you to sit here." Todd patted the seat next to him once with a closed fist, then eagerly lifted up his bag of potato chips and yanked it open, a puff of salty crumb dust hitting the air. "This is really more of an experience than a film, I want to see what you think, second by second."

"Oh, okay." Maybe it some art house thing? Jimmy had gone through an art house phase when he'd been around Todd's age. The sofa was specious, so he settled himself, watching the logos for the production studio begin to come across the screen. The surround sound was crisp. 

Jimmy pinched a few kernels of popcorn and brought them to his lips. 

The score was the first thing that surprised him. It was heavy, oppressive, and there was a high pitched wail that tickled his ears and made him feel a bit off-balance.

"So, uh, what kind of movie is this?" Jimmy did the movie theater whisper lean, though they were alone.

"A thriller. A mystery, too. Just watch." Todd scolded. Jimmy shrugged, and started chewing. It was good he got in some popcorn near the beginning, because it wasn't too far into the movie when his appetite began to wane. 

Anxiety washed over Jimmy. It was a combination of facts. The first was the horribly realistic gore filled the movie, with crisper sound than he'd ever heard, and everything was in unrelenting high definition. When a girl got brutally decapitated, the viscera sprayed everywhere in such high fidelity each individual drop could be counted. Jimmy flinched, unable to look. He buried his face reflexively against Todd's shoulder. 

"Hey, you okay?" Todd's hand patted Jimmy's knee reassuringly.

Jimmy wanted to respond, but he was dangerously close to losing his popcorn all over Todd. He didn't understand. He'd watched Nightmare on Elm Street countless times. He'd endured all the Freddys and Jasons available to him. This was more like... Cannibal Holocaust. Something about the grittiness and unrelenting filth of it churned his stomach. It was a total rejection of anything beautiful.

Todd had stopped patting his knee, now rubbing Jimmy's leg in ever expanding circles.

"That's the worst part, keep watching." Todd encouraged.

Jimmy gathered his resolve, ashamed of having looked weak in front of the brat. He pushed his back into the sofa, resolutely lifted his ice cold Pepsi, and watched with a grim determination. Todd kept a hand on Jimmy's knee; Jimmy wanted to shove him off but couldn't think of a way to do it without making it even more awkward, so he just left it be for now.

Things were okay for a while... until the next scene of intense, violent perversion. It was the sound mixing, had to be, that really disgusted Jimmy. The sobbing screams mingled with bones snapping and organs mulching and....

Light headed, JImmy tried to get up, only to have Todd squeeze his knee right beneath the cap, keeping him pinned to the seat. Jimmy gave a yelp at the pain. Todd looked sideways at him.

 

"It's just a movie." Todd unclenched his grip, stroking Jimmy's thigh soothingly. 

"I don't feel good." Jimmy leaned in and whispered to Todd, not because he was worried about ruining the movie, but because his voice wouldn't come out any louder then that. 

Todd's eyes sparkled in the blue-light cast from the screen as a smile crossed his lips.

"That means you're experiencing it. In a way, I'm sort of jealous, how much more intense would this movie be if I could feel what you're feeling right now."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jimmy hissed.

Todd's hand slipped from the top to caress Jimmy's inner thigh. "I wish you would have worn your leggings." He murmured, out of left field, unexpected as to be expected. 

"What? Todd, stop touching me-"

"You feel clammy." Todd pressed a hand against Jimmy's forehead, dabbing up sweat. While Jimmy batted at the hand on his forehead, Todd leaned forward even more until his body was pressed against Jimmy. His hand was slipped between the legs, until the tips of his four fingers pressed against the bulge of Jimmy's package. "You've got a little fear stiffy."

Jimmy opened his mouth, Esperanto laced out between his breaths. However, Jimmy was not wearing a robe, holding his staff, or his wizard hat. It was nothing more than a string of impotent syllables. Still, Todd knew what Jimmy had just attempted. He pinched Jimmy's balls through the pants, cutting off the words in an involuntary whimper.

"Don't be like that." Todd scolded. Someone was sobbing on screen. Todd leaned forward, not relenting with his vice-lip grip on Jimmy's testicle. He blocked the film as he whispered into Jimmy's ear. "I really like you too."

"What?" Jimmy risked a single syllable. Todd's fingers flexed, but didn't issue any more punishment.

"I said, I really like you too." Then he kissed Jimmy's ear. The hand below rolled the thumb, massaging the flesh beneath the red fabric. "I've never liked someone who liked me back before. This is special for me."

Jimmy was struggling to think straight. Through the nausea boiling in his stomach, his auditory senses being assaulted by the unending high pitched shrieking of the film, and his dumb dick twitching to life beneath Todd's fingers, he was totally disoriented.

Todd buried his fingers in Jimmy's hair and brought their foreheads together. With two noses this large, it was a bit tough to look into each other's eyes, but Todd risked it. Jimmy's eyes were pale, Todd's dark and feverish with anticipation.

"I've been trying to figure it out, why the hell you stood up for me. You're not like me. You're pretty and people listen to you. You can pass for normal, even though you love computers and D&D crap. I kept thinking, why would he do it?"

Todd's fingers fumbled with the fly on Jimmy's pants, until he found and unbuttoned it. He dug around until he was able to wrap his fingers around Jimmy's semi-hard on, buried in the folds of his soft red briefs. "But today you told me, just came out and said it."

"T-Todd?"

"You really like me." Todd shuddered, his grip tightening. He pumped Jimmy up and down, urging the erection to grow against Jimmy's intentions. "You smell so good." Todd inhaled, his face buried in the platinum locks as he inhaled against Jimmy's neck. "Lots of guys use a perfume, but it usually just smells like hair spray. You smell like smoke and leather and mint. Mmm." The few syllables weren't even words, but just throaty sounds Todd made of satisfaction. 

"I think there's been a misunderstanding." Jimmy tried pushing on Todd's shoulder to put some distance between them. Todd just used the rearranging to pull himself further forward. He knocked Jimmy onto his back. Todd pulled down the hem of the underpants, exposing Jimmy's genitals to the cool air of the cinema-dungeon. "Todd!"

"You don't have to be shy about it. I won't tell anyone we're doing this." Todd yanked so hard on the other's dick Jimmy's hips bounced up from the sofa cushion. Jimmy whimpered again. "I just want to make you feel good. Let me make you feel good."

"Why?" Jimmy tried to scramble up onto his elbows, but there was simply more of Todd and the bigger man pushed him down again. Todd kissed his neck, freed from it's usual protective standing collar by the simple T-shirt. Should Jimmy just punch him and run for his staff? Todd seemed so distracted, but Jimmy knew a bruise was already forming on the tender flesh of his foreskin where Todd had pinched... or would be if he could seriously be injured. Still, What if he did something worse? Would the pain make Jimmy faint? If that happened, what would Todd do with him?

"At first the idea that you liked me seemed silly. I know gay guys have standards, really high ones. I thought: he's only into other pretty boys or older guys or he's a pedo." Todd relished the shape of Jimmy's cock in his palm, patiently drawing the foreskin back, flirting with the exposed head just enough to feel Jimmy tremble, before relenting in the pressure. "No one's ever liked me before, not in my whole life. I'm just not the kind of guy anyone likes."

Todd straddled Jimmy, meaty legs on either side as he settled to sit on JImmy's thighs. He continued to stroke Jimmy, but brought his own hand up and reached down into his pants. Even in the flickering lights, Jimmy saw a full fledged erection clutched in Todd's fist.

"But then I started paying more attention. I already kind of liked you, There's just something about a twinks in tunics that really does it for me. I wanted to fuck you almost a bad as I wanted to fuck Gwen, but they were just fantasies, you know?"

Todd's voice slowed down during the word 'fuck', he lingered on it as he gave his own cock a little twist. He shuddered, his grip unconsciously flinching on Jimmy's aching member.

"But then you kept me, and you... were always over my shoulder. Always there with your smell and your hair and your legs and your invasive hands."

Invasive? Jimmy thought dizzily. He did touch a lot. But that was just-

Todd shuddered.

"-so I paid attention. I found out the real reason. You like me. And it's because we're the same. Well, almost the same." Todd nodded towards the screen, without breaking the steady rhythm of his stroking. "You can be squeamish, but I'm willing to compromise for this to work."

"Not the same. i wasn't almost banished because I broke the rules." Jimmy gasped. With Todd occupied pleasuring himself, Jimmy own hand crept back to find the soda snuggled safely in the cup holder. If he could grab it and splash Todd's face, maybe...

"You just haven't been caught yet." Todd purred. "I found it."

"What?"

"The special projects subsection. I was doing a file search for 'orcs'. I wasn't really expecting anything, since you all told me there wasn't anything cool here, but I found entries. Coded. Coordinates here near Camelot. Orcs. Then I found file entrees coded for elves. And dwarves. And Halflings." Todd shuddered. "You're going real carefully, very slowly, but you're still doing it. Controlling people, like I do. Experimenting. You're stepping lightly because you're squeamish, but you can't help yourself." Todd was panting. "You want to bend the bones back, you want to see the tendons stretch, you need to know how far it goes. You're a discoverer, like I am."

Jimmy's body went cold. Suddenly, everything that had happened before seemed unimportant. So what if Todd was jacking him off. That's drunken sleep over bull shit. Who cares if the movie is gross? He could have turned it off with a single sentence, problem solved. How did Todd know about the projects, though?

"Of course, I had some helping knowing what to look for. I bribed the servants to browse through your hard copy journals and bring them to me. Since I'm a wizard too, they just assumed it was part of my training. Your laziness about cleaning your own room overrode your sense of security, everyone closed out except for the maids... so I asked them to look for your spell books." Todd stopped jerking himself to give Jimmy a slap on the cheek. Jimmy flinched, his fingers twitched around the cup above his head. "So sloppy. Don't break the law and document it, you dumb ass. I mean, it won't do any good to destroy the evidence now, I've already taken them and stored them, but in the future, when we're working together, write it in a secret language or something."

"Evidence doesn't do much good if you can't tell anyone." Jimmy threatened, preparing to toss the soda onto Todd. He's surprise him, get to his staff, and kill the other. He'd make up the alibi, excuse, and why later to fed to the others.

"Deadman's switch." Todd sang, interrupting Jimmy's thoughts. 

"What?" Jimmy's fingers hesitated.

"Deadman's switch." Todd affectionately followed the curve of Jimmy's jawline with a rough index finger. "If my respiration falls below a certain threshold, such as it would if I were ghosted or murdered, I've already prepared e-mail attachments with evidence to go to everyone whose advanced enough to receive PDFs. Aaah, you threatened to murder me. You were going to do it, too. I can tell." His voice was high with admiration. "I knew we were the same. It's what I'd do if I were pretty and powerful and had so much to lose like you do."  
"You're bluffing. You've got nothing." Jimmy spat.

"You can still kill me, of course, or turn me over if you're really the good guy you pretend to be. Just know if I go down, you're going down with me. It can be so hard to do the right thing, sometimes, huh?"

His entire future was in this psycho's hands.

"That's it." Todd's eyes widened. He stopped touching Jimmy's face, he licked the palm, then went back to his own cock, his other arm landing on the sofa to hold him steady. He jerked frantically, soft rapid gasps escaping him. "True terror. Real fear. Oh. Oooh." He moaned. His body compacted, lowering by inches as he curled into the stroking. His eyes watched Jimmy's face of defeated anguish, drinking in every facial twitch of misery. "Aaah. Aaa." He then groaned. A stream of hot sticky cum flew from his cock, a streak of white against the dark fabric of Jimmy's shirt. Todd gasped, then pressed their bodies tight together as he kissed Jimmy deeply. J

immy's fingers unclenched from the soda cup, drawing in his aching arm as Todd ravenously pressed their lips together. Each of Todd's inhalations was impatiently desperate to get back to being joined so tightly no air could escape, his tongue inexpertly plunging into Jimmy's mouth..

The credits began to roll, bringing a merciful end to the background soundtrack of torment and suffering. Jimmy was crying. Todd didn't seem to mind this, stopping to kiss away the tears sometimes and others just using his hands to drive them back into Jimmy's hairline. Finally, with a shuddering sigh, he sat up. He gave Jimmy's cock a playful flick, then dabbed at his own shrinking, moist cock with a napkin.

Jimmy pushed himself up, pulling his pants back on in shell shocked silence.

"I really like you," Todd glanced sideways, sounding absurdly nervous considering all that had happened. Jimmy stared straight ahead. He wanted to murder Todd. Get rid of him. Not murder like in the movie. Not all theatrical and drawn out. He just wanted to hit delete.

Or undo. He should have banished him when Philip had said to.

"Jimmy?" Todd sounded worried. "You didn't come, I know. I don't really know how this gay stuff works yet, but I'm sure next time I'll get both of us."

He put a thick hand on Jimmy's shoulder.

"You can pick the movie, something that'll really put you in the mood, okay?" He offered, generously. Jimmy had no choice. He turned to Todd. He hitched up the falsest smile he'd ever had to summon, digging deep to any thespian roots he had. 

"Thanks, Todd." The concern lingered on Todd's face, so Jimmy added. "I really like you too. Although, I'm a little pissed you outsmarted me." Jimmy leaned over, planting a soft kiss on the other's moist lips that ripped his pride to shreds with its admittance of submission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, I did write two 5k+ fanfics ultimately about Todd giving Jimmy a hand job. No, I don't know why I did this. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ It shall always be a mystery. Also, Jimmy doesn't talk enough in this chapter. It was supposed to be he was sick from something Todd did to him during the cake scene, but I never wrote that subplot in. Fuck it, I'm not going back to fix it now, no one's going to read this but me and -I- already know that's what happened, so whatever. If somehow another human person finds this, hope you enjoyed it!


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